MAC - Rose Is A Rose Quad

This delish quad is Nordstrom exclusive and from what my counter girls have told me is fairly limited. Even the San Francisco counter is getting fewer than 50 and that is a dang busy counter.

This quad is $36 bucks well spent in my opinion for Solar White alone. Solar White came out last year and is the most awesome white gold EVER! If only this color would join the permanent line I could stop rationing it out to myself.

The other shades are Seeds of Love and Petal Worship which are both quad only and Contrast the deep blue purple which is perm and is a favorite in my collection. I use Contrast as liner or to create a fab smokey eye.

Get your quad while you can!

MAC Rose Romance

I am a bit late to the game on mentioning Rose Romance. I can't say why exactly because there is a lot to love about this collection. Maybe it is because I was very selective about what I bought or perhaps it was because I already own both pigments and I really want some new ones to appear already!

Okay small tantrum over.

Here is what I loved and bought:

Silverthorn, Of Summer, and Et Tu Bouquet eyeshadows. Steal My Heart Lipglass. All of the See Thru Lipcolors and Blush of Youth Beauty Powder which is pictured.

I am IN LOVE with the Beauty Powder. Everyone has commented that the embossed design is hard to take a brush to and I agree but Blush of Youth is afreakin-mazing! MAC describes it as a clean pink with gold pearl and that is about right except I don't see any pearl, just glow. Blush of Youth is a soft healthy pink that you can build to your hearts content and you won't ever leave the house looking like a clown.

The two pigments offered are Mutiny and Circa Plum. Mutiny is a bright sky blue and Circa Plum is a dirty lavender with quite a bit of gray to my eye. As I said I own both and love them and if they are not a part of your pigment collection I highly suggest picking them up.

All in all there is a lot to love but the Beauty Powder just stole my heart!

MAC - Double Dazzle

Oh man! Double Dazzle has come to town with 18 shades to choose from. My understanding is that most of the shades are joining the permanent line except for 2 but none of my local MAC ladies knew which 2 weren't.

For the uninitiated Double Dazzle is all about Dazzleglass which is basically MAC's answer to lipgloss nirvana. I have written before about my love of Dazzleglass and so I will try and keep my enthusing to a minimum. Dazzleglass is a gloss that is thicker than most and contains large particle shimmer. Between the actual gloss formula and the shimmer this gloss is uber shiny and utterly gorgeous.

The color payoff on these varies from barely there to near neon shades with just about everything in between. The thicker consistency allows Dazzleglass to be a bit hardier and stay in place and really dang shiny when other glosses would have wimped out and gone home. The original collection came out in 2008 and I bought nearly all of the shades. The 6 new shades to choose from in Double Dazzle give me the opportunity to refill on favorites and to fall in love with some new beauties.

Dazzleglass is $18 and worth every shimmery penny!

MAC - Grand Duos

Crap, crap, crap! Doesn't MAC know there is an economic recession going on and that we poor makeup junkies are feeling the pinch in our makeup allowance! Seriously these folks need to either keep their pricing low or stop releasing collections where I want every last thing. Naturally I vote for option #1.

Say hello to MAC's Grand Duo blushes and the cause of all my consternation. These gorgeous babies are $22.50 and so lovely I can not stand it!

Grand Duos are available in 7 shades and feature a tri-color marble half and a solid color shimmer other half that is glowy rather than glitter-tastic. Here is the lineup:

Light Over Dark - Yellow orange with brown
Moon River - Blue pink melange with pale yellow pink
Love Rock - Gold violet melange with bright blue pink
Grand Duo - Copper pink with plum
Earth to Earth - Purple bronze with yellow brown
Intenso - Pink gold with terracotta rose
Hot Planet - Copper yellow with midtone plum

My picks after pre-selling are Moon River, Love Rock, Grand Duo, and Intenso. Earth to Earth is very intriguing but I am a bit worried about wearability so I am very interested to see how this one does. Intenso is amazing and I am not a huge warm tone fan but Intenso is nuts in a good way!

MAC - Brunette Blonde Redhead

This MAC collection is a must see and keep your wallet handy and your budget in mind. It is easy to get swept away and buy every last new color in sight if you aren't careful! Brunette Blonde Redhead is almost all new color and MAC has hit it out of the park with nearly all of the offerings.




The Mineralize degrade powders are finely milled and provide highlighting and color that is ultra-blendable. There isn't a bad one in the bunch although I passed on the Brunette MSF as it is very warm for my skin tone.

My favorite Lipglass is Strawberry Blonde and holy cow it is multiple worthy. SB is a deep pink red that is lovely and would look good on anyone blonde or not.





Henna and Flip eyeshadows are two gold based shades that MAC has before now been missing and Pincurl is a grey with iridescence that may not seem impressive in the pan but is magic on the eye. Pincurl is duplicate worthy as well.

I encourage you to go see this collection and please check out the limited edition brushes quickly. The 3 brushes should be permanent but if they aren't you will kick yourself hard for not getting them.

The 226 is a baby 224 and is a perfect crease and blender combined. This is a brush that MAC has been missing for a while and I praise them for providing it.

The 214 is a smudge shader that is unique in that it comes to a chisel edge that allows you to smudge liner along the lash line like no other.

The 165 is a tapered cheek highlight brush and is made for exactly that purpose. It hugs the top of the cheek bone and makes highlighting a breeze.

Happy shopping!

MAC - Little Darlings

Little Darlings, what an appropriate name for these little treasures! These lovely sets will be on counters today and are all priced around $30. They are practically gift wrapped for you so I say perfect gift giving item for pals or for yourself.

From left you have the warm pigment set, cool pigment set, Softsparkle eye pencil set, coral lips, pink lips, and neutral lip set. The lip sets have both Lipglass and Lustreglass in them but my real must have item are the pigment sets.

I love pigments! Truly they make my heart beat a bit faster when I spot them all lined up just ready for me to play makeup with them. Oh pigments how I love you so!

The warm set includes Gold Dusk, Gold Mode, Gold Stroke, Melon, and Reflects Antique Gold Glitter. I am buying 2 of this one as I do not ever want to run out of Gold Dusk, ever!

The cool set includes Frost, Quietly, Pinked Mauve, Teal, and Reflects Blackened Red Glitter.

The pigment sets are usually quick to go so don't wait if one catches your fancy!

MAC - Passions of Red

Here they are....MAC's annual holiday palettes. Between the packaging and the color choices this is a great collection and far better than they have been in the recent past. The most recent holiday sets in my memory were filled with hits and misses which left me passing on them altogether. These palettes are a vast improvement and are not only worth purchasing for your own collection but are very giftable.

There are 4 eye palettes and are pictured from left to right are classic, warm, smokey, and cool eyes. Warm and cool are especially lovely with cool having all exclusive eyeshadow colors. Smokey would be a great gift for someone who doesn't have a ton of MAC already.

The 3 lip palettes are coral, cool pink, and plum with plum being the clear winner and a favorite for me already.

All the palettes are $22.50 and come with a brush.

As I go to post this Obama is the projected new president of the USA. Whether you voted for him or not this is a historic and wonderful moment in our history. This is an election that you will tell your children and grandchildren about. After all this election proves that anybody can grow up and be our president which is a truly wonderful thing.

MAC - Red She Said

Well it's official. MAC is single handedly trying to bolster our sagging economy by having us poor addicted makeup junkies spend ourselves into oblivion! MAC just keeps putting out one gorgeous collection after another and my bank account has been left to limp along and try to recover.

Red She Said is on counters now and my strategy for not filing makeup bankruptcy is to really edit myself and what I buy from each collection. I look over my current makeup carefully and make sure that I am not buying blatant duplicates and I never buy multiples of anything unless it is a holy grail type product that I would be willing to buy on EBay later.

So far this strategy is working fairly well and I have found myself leaving my local MAC store with a lot less than the full collection.

Red She Said has lots to love but I tried very hard to be reasonable which is not my strong suit with MAC. Here are my picks:

Eye Trios in Word of Mouth, Threesome, and Inter-view. I loved all the trios with the bronze stripe but the silver stripes just didn't grab me. I do like Danger Zone with the ruby red and black but am trying to edit.

I also picked Stark Naked out of the Beauty Powders. It is a girly pink mauve and will see lots of use in my blush palette.

I love Soft Pause lipstick a sheer brown-berry shade but passed on the Dazzleglass because most were re-released colors. I do hope Dazzleglass joins the permanent line and we see some new colors come our way.

MAC - Cremesheen

I feel like I can't keep up with MAC these days. I mean I can't blog fast enough and my bank account is lagging behind as well.

Cremesheen lipsticks are supposed to be added to the permanent collection and I say amen sister to that. I was therefore pretty picky about what I bought and the clear winner for me is a shade called On Hold.

Seriously it is a perfect warmish pink shade that makes green shadows come alive. I have really gone on a bender with green and gold shadows and On Hold is magical with green. It transforms the khakis and highlights the more lime shades. It is a winner and I would buy multiples if it weren't sticking around.

Cremesheen is a great fall choice and I encourage you to check these lipsticks out. They have the color and opacity of MAC's Amplified formula but the gloss and shine of a glaze. In a word....Lovely!

MAC - Suite Array

The star of this collection are the Pearlglide liners. I know others may disagree but this is my blog and Pearlglides rule here! Seriously, I am not enchanted with the slide out format of the Suite Array shadows and the texture and color payoff are just not what I look for in a shadow.

Pearlglide liners are slightly metallic with visible glitter but it isn't chunky just shiny and glorious. These are limited edition and I know they will blow out of stores faster than a race car.

The eyeshadow duos are not my favorite and here's why. The slide out container and square pan format make it impossible to put in palette form and the texture was not as creamy as I had hoped. I realize these are matte shadows but MAC's Matte2 set the bar for smooth matte shadows and these just don't live up to that expectation.

Ah well I suppose it's for the best. If I had loved all the shadows I would be on makeup restriction by now!

MAC Set Powder - Invisible

Here is my loose powder of choice. MAC Set Powder in Invisible is aptly named and described.

This powder is ultra fine, sets makeup and is indeed invisible. You also get a whopping huge jar for $24.

I have heard a few complaints about this powder and they mainly revolve around it looking powdery on the skin. First of all a very small amount is required to set makeup and overuse will look a bit white and powdery. It is a common thing with setting powders to assume if a little is good, more would be better. I am guilty of this one too.

Second this would not be my first choice for those will very dry skin but those will oily skin will love its mattifying properties.

This is a Pro Product and can be purchased at Pro Stores or over the phone from MAC. Checking out the MAC Pro website can introduce you to all sorts of products and some colors that you never knew existed that might not suit your everyday tastes but offer some amazing color choices.

MAC - Zoomlash

I am clearly on some sort of kick! I just keep trying mascara after mascara. I guess it means that I haven't found what I am looking for.

I am here to tell you that Zoomlash may have changed all that for me.

As you can imagine my local Sephora and MAC folks know me well. I walk into the store and I get a greeting on par with going to a friends house. It includes lots of hello's and hugs. I admit I bask in the attention and love talking makeup with people who love it as much as me. Most friends just don't quite get my makeup problem and so I love meeting kindred makeup obsessed spirits and feeling that I am amongst my people.

Anyway, back to Zoomlash. My favorite MAC MA gave me a sample of this mascara after I told her about my Plush Lash experiment. I like Plush Lash a lot but the wand is a bit difficult to maneuver and I am always getting mascara on my eyelid. After trying out Zoomlash I went back immediately and purchased a tube! Seriously, this mascara found all the lashes I have including the little baby ones near the lash line that are growing in! I got instant length and with a few more swipes I got satisfactory volume. I also did not have any issues with clumping and all this can be had for $12 bucks which is a serious bargain.

I also wore this on a very hot day and it didn't run or smudge and the brush is thin enough to get into the inner corner lashes with ease. My best results so far have been a coat of Zoomlash and then a comb through with Max Factor Volume Couture...my lashes have never looked so good!

Seriously though has anyone noticed the price of the drugstore brands creeping up lately? The mascaras are nearing $10 a tube at the drugstore and are making the $30 mascaras actually seem reasonably priced.

Zoomlash is by far my favorite MAC mascara with Pro Lash being second and Plush Lash being third due to its unwieldy wand. I have heard many a complaint that MAC is practically perfect in every way except for mascara and I have to say I do not agree. There are some great ones you just have to choose wisely.

MAC - Overrich

Happy Monday! I forgot to post this and realize that most of these pigments are sold out but you can find them if you look and online is always a good option at MAC.

Calling all pigment fans....get along to the local MAC store and get yourself some of the 8 limited edition pigments before they are gone...or get all of them.

Here's the thing, pigments aren't cheap at $20 a jar, but they do last a LONG time and are so versatile. They can be used for eyeshadow, lipcolor, nail polish, blush, highlighter, etc. depending on the shade. Truly I love them.

Now I will say this, a good base is needed for pigments to be at their best and adhere to the eyelid with good color payoff. But that my friends is not a reason to avoid pigments, just get a good base! My suggestions for oily lids are Urban Decay Primer Potion or MAC Paint Pots. For normal to dry lids Too Faced Shadow Insurance or MAC Cream Color Base. I am in the oily category and so Paint Pots are my weapon of choice to get good color payoff and prevent fading and creasing.

I also find that pigments are easier to work with depending on the brush you choose. I love MAC's #239 which is a small shader for applying pigment to the lids and #217 if I am blending. Also the smaller #242 is an excellent all around option for using pigment wet or dry. Tapping off excess pigment is key or you may end up with Rocky Balboa type fallout under your eyes.

But really who cares about all this tech talk, on to the colors!

Blonde's Gold - Light tan with gold/white pearl
Heritage Rose - Burgundy with red/brown pearl
Copperbeam - Rusted brown with red pearl
Vintage Gold - Tarnished green with gold pearl
Antique Green - Turquiose green with green pearl
Museum Bronze - Rich taupe with gold pearl
Mega-Rich - Burnt orange with gold pearl
Mauvement - Mauve taupe with gold pearl

I won't lie, I bought 7 of the 8. Only Mega-Rich didn't make the cut. Mega-Rich is very orange for my fair skin and Copperbeam was prettier in my opinion.

While pigment may take a bit of practice and patience to work with you will be rewarded with color payoff that is out of this world!

Hunting for MAC Treasure

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have access to a lot of MAC stores including a Pro store in San Francisco as well as numerous department store locations. Getting my MAC fix is pretty easy and when new collections hit I can get my paws on all the stuff I want. I realize that many folks don't have it so good so I don't mean to gloat.

Every once in a while a collection comes out and it just doesn't knock my socks off or there is a sleeper hit that I originally pass on and by the time I go looking they are long gone. After some hunting I have found 2 sources in my neck of the woods that seem to have a whole treasure trove of MAC goodies.

MAC on Burlingame Avenue and the MAC counter inside Bloomingdales at the Stanford Shopping Center.

For instance, the Bloomies MAC counter still has Heatherette, Fafi, Cool Heat, Sonic Chic, and Mineralize shadow duos. Plus they have all kinds of random pigments from collections past. MAC Burlingame is much the same but not quite as much stuff lasts there. The key is that both locations are not super busy and therefore don't sell out of stuff as quickly or at all.

So my friends if you are looking for something and just can't sleuth it out try one of these places and you just might find your treasure!

MAC Burlingame 650-340-0525

Bloomingdales Stanford 650-463-2000

MAC Slimshine

I wish I was creative enough to write a poem or perhaps an ode to Slimshine, maybe a haiku! Alas I am not that poetic and my ode would end up being cringe worthy and would not properly convey my love of Slimshine.

MAC made a winner when it conceived of Slimshine and at $14.50 you can buy an array of colors to suit your fancy. Slimshine should be in every makeup junkies arsenal of cosmetic goodies and I can tell you it is a staple in mine.

Slimshine earns its beloved status because it is a lipstick/gloss hybrid that makes me giddy. You get the best of both worlds...sheer and shiny glossiness coupled with lipstick color payoff and no goopy feel. I am obsessive about this type of lip product because few things look as fresh as translucent shiny color....it just defines pretty.

My favorite Slimshines are:

Grenadine - creamy deep blue red
Long Stem Rose - baby pink with gold pearl
Most Wanted - berry red with gold shimmer
By Degrees - pinky brown
Tropic Glow - blue pink with silver shimmer
Rock Out - bright blue pink with gold shimmer

Rock Out and Most Wanted are the shades I use most and I mix Grenadine with just about any color to brighten it up.

MAC Plush Lash

Since you already know I am a mascara tramp it should come as no surprise that on my recent trip to MAC for Cult of Cherry and Overrich goodies I picked up a tube of Plush Lash. The stuff is only $12 which is not much more than drugstore these days and so I figured what the heck!

I told my favorite MAC SA that I was looking for some serious pumping up of my puny lashes but did not want to spend an hour combing my lashes to fight off clumps. She nodded sagely and said Plush Lash would do me just fine.

She instructed me to use the flatter side of the wand for length and separation then the rounded side for volume.

Here is the bottom line. The formula is good but the brush is a bit tough to maneuver. I found myself constantly getting my eyelid smudged but have persevered because Plush Lash really does pump up my wimpy lashes.

With some practice the results are quite nice but if you are brush challenged this is not the best choice for you. I intend to try Zoom Lash by MAC as well as my SA swears by it. I will let you know how it goes.

MAC - Cult of Cherry

So I know I have already blogged about Cult of Cherry but I figured I would yap some more.

I picked up a few things but didn't even touch the Mattene colors or nail polish.

Instead I fell in love with all 3 palettes which are gorgeous. Spiced Chocolate on the left is fall embodied in an eyeshadow quad. My MAC pals say this is the hit with palette's selling out fast.

Tempting is the middle palette and has the most interesting mix of color with the chartreuse beauty Sharp just shouting at you. Sharp is not as scary as it may initially seem and can be worn very sheer for day or over a base for intensity anytime. Sharp layered with Tempting makes a beautiful shade.

Shadowy Lady is on the left and is probably my favorite of the three although it does have two re-promotes in Deep Truth the deep vivid blue and Shadowy Lady the deep matte purple. But I am not deterred by that as these are two of my favorite shadows from MAC's permanent line anyway.

My other favorites from this collection are Rich and Ripe Lipglass and Lightly Ripe lipstick. I bought two of each as they are near perfect everyday shades for me with Lightly Ripe being basically my lip color.

I encourage you to check out this collection. After receiving my issue of Allure and Instyle the other day I was amazed that both mags feature chartreuse eyeshadow prominently.

Mac New Collections

As my wallet was finally recovering from Sonic Chic and Electroflash not to mention the damage done by Starflash, MAC circles the wagons for the final assault on a barely breathing bank account!

Overrich and Cult of Cherry are on the way and god help us poor makeup junkies! Now I have heard conflicting info on the release date, everything from late August to September but my local MAC store insists these are coming on August 21st. I am betting on the 22nd as most MAC releases seem to hit officially on Fridays.

Anyway Overrich consists of 8 pigments with only one being a repromote and really pigments more than most MAC products make my heart flutter! Here are the details:

• Blonde's Gold - Light Tan with Gold and White pearl
• Antique Green - Turquoise Green with Gold pearl
• Vintage Gold - Tarnished Green with Green pearl
• Museum bronze - Rich Taupe with Gold pearl
• Mauvement - (Repromote) Cool Taupe with Gold Pearl
• Mega-Rich - Frosty burnt Orange with Gold pearl
• Copperbeam - Rusted Brown with Red pearl
• Heritage Rouge - Deep Burgundy with Red and Brown pearl

Cult of Cherry is the fall epitomized with dramatic eyes and rich lips. There are 3 eye quads:

Spiced Chocolate focuses on reddish chocolate shades. Shadowy Lady has one of my fav MAC shades of the same name and is all about purple and blue. Tempting is dark and lovely with gold and coco. All the quads are $36 and feature some limited shades......in other words snap them up if you like them as the popular MAC stuff seems to blow out of town in the blink of an eye.

I have already reserved my picks from the two collections and once again I am pretty sure my makeup spending could pay off third world debt. But hey makeup is my thing and you will never catch me clothes shopping for fun, just out of strict necessity!

There will be new lipsticks, lipglass, mattene, nail polish and blush but I am in overload. Please say a solemn prayer for my bank account, it's going to need it!

MAC - Starflash Collection

What the heck is going on? I walked into Nordstrom on Friday night and found this collection of eyeshadows and pencils staring back at me! Starflash is all over the Internet but is completely absent from the MAC site and the Nordstrom site??? Again, what's up?!

Well all I can say is don't waste any time and run, do not walk down to your local Nordstrom store and pick yourself up some Starflash eyeshadow. This shadow is swoon worthy not only due to the color but the texture! Oh lord above the texture is any makeup junkie's dream. The shadows are all frost satin and creamy beyond belief.

I know I am gushing and I can't help it. I wanted every last one of the 12 shadows but only bought half! Only, she says....but when you see them and swatch them for yourself you will understand why not purchasing every last one was such a challenge.

I feel like MAC is on a personal mission to bankrupt me for good. There I will be in bankruptcy court trying to tell the judge that it wasn't me and my makeup addiction but instead MAC is to blame. If they would just slow down the spigot of makeup fabulousness I could exhibit some self control! As it is I am single-handedly helping out our sagging economy!

Talent Pool is probably my favorite of all the shadows and is a bright teal aquamarine shade that looks drop dead smack me twice gorgeous layered with Delft paint pot.

A little later I will be discussing how I get all these shadows into palette form.....stay tuned!

UPDATE: Starflash is now up on the MAC website and selling fast!

MAC Overload!

Okay I love MAC....in reality I worship at the altar of makeup that is MAC. But lately MAC has been giving my credit cards a workout that is leaving me poor! I mean the collections have been coming fast and furious and every single one has had at least one thing I just couldn't live without! I love them but my bank account does not. So no more whining and on with the makeup fun!

Above is Electro Flash! Holy Cow....is there any other word for it. For those who love the Mineralize eyeshadow your ship has come in. The new duos have a mix of 3 shades on one side with a solid shade on the other. The 4 new lip shades and 4 Tinted Lipglass shades have me in a tizzy! I mean of the 8 I want 4 and if you saw my current lip wardrobe that exceeds 200 shades you would agree that I have got to put the brakes on or learn to edit in a serious way!



















Next up is New View. The compact has a natural matte finish and the other a soft shimmer and comes in 5 shades and is the next generation Mineralize powder. I can tell you that the shimmer side is indeed soft and not disco ball and these light weight powders are perfect for the warm months when you don't want liquid makeup running down your face.




Last but certainly not least is Sonic Chic! Again these are Mineralize blushes in 9 shades that all have a degree of shimmer and apply more sheer than they appear. Again the colors are ridiculously beautiful and I just don't know how many blushes one girl can justify! The 181 buffer brush is a smaller version of the 182 and has the shape of a kabuki but is so much softer than any kabuki I have ever felt. The 181 is the perfect size to buff on cheek colors or luminizers along the cheek bone and is worth every penny!

So all this MAC fun hits counters July 10th (online now) and I will be spending the time in between carefully considering my picks and perfecting my justifying skills.